School: Lisnabo, Newtownforbes (roll number 15460)

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1. Local Poet

   

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   A man named Owen Foley supposed to have come from Co. Roscommon, the townland of Kilglass. He came to Co Longford in or about the year 1868. He worked as a farm labourer in the townland of Corteen, about a mile from Longford town.
   He was a lover of cats, he often had about eighteen or twenty cats at a time, and had names upon them all, and when he would call them by their names, they would come to him.
   In his spare time he composed many poems of things in particular he had seen during the day, also, if any neighbour asked him to give a few lines about anything that had happened he could do so in first class style.
   Here are some of the poems which he composed:- The Thief Bullock of Corteen. A good Natured Spanish Lady. The Gentlemen's day for me. The Pheasants Nest. Paddy Mornan. and scores of others which old people often come over in our own home.
   He (himself) told several old people that he got the gift when he was about the age of fifteen. Although he never went a day to school, he could compose a poem of eighteen or twenty verses with the least trouble.
   His father according to Owen himself was a gifted poet also.
   There are several stories told as to why he made up the song about "The Thief Bullock".

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. genre
      1. poetry
         1. folk poetry (~9,504)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Dorothy Dixon

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Aghareagh, Co. Longford

   Informant

   Mr W. Mc Caddow

   Gender

   Male